San Francisco to vote on sex-change benefits

The city currently has about 14 transgender employees out of its
37,000 workers. All employees' health costs would increase about
$1.70 a month under proposed plan changes that would include the
sex-change benefits as well as items such as hearing aids and
acupuncture.

San Francisco apparently would be the only governmental body in
the nation to make sex-change benefits available. The state of
Minnesota offered such benefits, but the program was phased out in
1998. The issue was discussed in Oregon, but a commission decided
against it in 1999.

The term transgender covers a broad range of categories
including cross-dressers, transvestites, transsexuals and those
born with characteristics of both sexes.